NASA Spergs -

[Ariel]

Who else watches NASA and NASA contractor launches?

I'm watching the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 countdown right now:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#.U7J_Po2SzK1

The launch got canceled at 46 seconds.

 

[LM 697]

It still lasted longer than Hal does.

 

[Ariel]

It still lasted longer than Hal does.

How did you that out?

 

[Some JERK]

When I'm in Florida I live within driving distance of Kennedy. I've watched a few shuttle launches (and couple of ATLAS V launches in the last couple of years). If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend going to see a launch in person. (and you can tour the space center, which is kinda cool.)

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

When I was in 4th and 5th grade I lived near a NASA facility in Cleveland and went to a Young Astronaut Day on Saturday. It was more like a young engineer day because we did a lot of science projects and got to meet an astronaut. It was pretty cool and I wanted to be an engineer for a few years after that.

 

[MY 405]

I am a NASA geek of the first order. I don't get the NASA channel anymore and I miss it. When I worked at NBC we got the newsroom's raw feed whenever a mission was up and on days I was in my office I would just turn it on and watch the Earth float by all day. The other producers thought I was nuts, and of course, it was the most serene, lovely, inspiring thing to watch. Except on Thursdays and Fridays when we watched golf. But hell yes, I am totally an Apollo kid, absolutely remember seeing Neil Armstrong take the "One Small Step" and I've got a small collection of space memorabilia. "In the Shadow of the Moon" about the Mercury program by Francis French is fantastic if you're interested in Space Race history. And do try to get to the Cape one day if you're into it. The Saturn/Apollo building is so mind-blowing it will leave you speechless.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

I posted in another thread a while back about how I'm still gobsmacked when it comes to the achievements of the space race era, particularly the moon landings and the fact that they were achieved with 1960's technology. Just a couple of days ago I watched a program about the Voyager missions and it's incredible that these things are still broadcasting despite the fact that they're nearly forty years old and billions of miles from Earth.

 

[klystron]

What I don't understand is why NASA paid SpaceX $431 million to produce capability that we will then pay them to rent for the next 10 years.

Personally I feel embarrassed that we are dependent on Russia and Japan for our launches now. I am honestly not sure if NASA will ever build the SLS.

What *really* pisses me off is in 2011 we paid over 4 times NASA's budget on food stamps. Don't believe me? Look it up.

 

[A-№1]

I've watched a few shuttle launches (and couple of ATLAS V launches in the last couple of years). If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend going to see a launch in person.

Yeah. They're pretty good. I guess.

Now the Saturn Vs? THOSE were something to see. And feel, because you felt it before you heard it. I really don't know how to describe them except to say ain't nothing like it. I mean I've since seen the footage on IMAX at full volume, and it doesn't hold a candle to the Real Thing. I don't even know how it could be replicated except by building another big damn rocket (fucking take the hint already Congress).

Personally I feel embarrassed that we are dependent on Russia and Japan for our launches now. I am honestly not sure if NASA will ever build the SLS.

Embarrassed? It makes me feel ashamed going cap in hand like this.

You have no idea how pissed I was when Constellation / Ares was canceled. How I didn't go full on apoplectic I don't know. And I also have zero confidence in SLS; it's always seemed to me to be more of a way to shovel tax money to the right political supporters to put people assholes into office instead a way of putting people into space.

Congress. The president. Sons of bitches. All of 'em.

It's been four and a half decades since Neil Armstrong made his one small step onto the moon. Four and a half decades, for fuck's sake. We have kids too young to have seen the moon landings, even as infants, becoming grandparents now. Four and a half decades of doing fuck all to take the next step. On Mars.

And now Neil's dead and we never even came close to showing him we were even trying to take that next step. We've fucking failed. We failed him, and we're failing ourselves.

What *really* pisses me off is in 2011 we paid over 4 times NASA's budget on food stamps. Don't believe me? Look it up.

Then you probably don't want to know what we spent on makeup in the same time. Fucking priorities.

 

[klystron]

Embarrassed? It makes me feel ashamed going cap in hand like this.

Well with the way things are going with Russia we probably won't be using the Soyuz for much longer anyway. It baffles me that we cannot get along with Russia. Maybe because of their quasi-dictator. I mean these guys are Judeo-Christian and white. Seem like we should be friends? Maybe not. I don't know. History is full of white Christian nations going to war with each other.

You have no idea how pissed I was when Constellation / Ares was canceled. How I didn't go full on apoplectic I don't know. And I also have zero confidence in SLS; it's always seemed to me to be more of a way to shovel tax money to the right political supporters to put people assholes into office instead a way of putting people into space.

Agreed. I remember I was in junior college and went to this thing where they showed Bush talking about going to Mars blah blah Constellation. I thought it was really cool. As a conservative it's easy at the time to think it's a waste of money. I used to say that we have so many problems in our own country we should fix those first before going into space. However, I started to research and see just how little we spend on our success in space vs all the money we shovel to the poor and entitlement programs. They don't work. People aren't less poor. At least we can demonstrate success in space.

Congress. The president. Sons of bitches. All of 'em.

They should have a "harrumph" button. I'd give you 3 of them.

It's been four and a half decades since Neil Armstrong made his one small step onto the moon. Four and a half decades, for fuck's sake. We have kids too young to have seen the moon landings, even as infants, becoming grandparents now. Four and a half decades of doing fuck all to take the next step. On Mars.

And now Neil's dead and we never even came close to showing him we were even trying to take that next step. We've fucking failed. We failed him, and we're failing ourselves.

Buzz is not going to be around much longer either. The only vision we have for NASA is reaching out and making peace with Muslims, right?

Then you probably don't want to know what we spent on makeup in the same time. Fucking priorities.

Well I would hope at least the makeup sales were private. The food stamp stuff is tax money that could be put to better use than encouraging people not to work.

 

[A-№1]

Well with the way things are going with Russia we probably won't be using the Soyuz for much longer anyway.

We shouldn't be using the Soyuz in the first place. Seriously. I mean they canned the shuttle program because it was obsolete technology, only to buy space on fucking Soyuz? Where does that even begin to make sense?

It baffles me that we cannot get along with Russia. Maybe because of their quasi-dictator. I mean these guys are Judeo-Christian and white. Seem like we should be friends? Maybe not. I don't know. History is full of white Christian nations going to war with each other.

White Judeo Christian whatever is all irrelevant. The problem is that all politicians, of all stripes, are assholes. All of them. By definition. Russia's asshole politicians don't get along with our own asshole politicians (and vice versa), mostly to shore up their own political authority in their respective countries. It's not about Russia or the United States, it's always about personal power for them.

I thought it was really cool. As a conservative it's easy at the time to think it's a waste of money.

I really don't want to make this a politics thread, but no effort expended in getting humanity off this rock is ever wasted. Even if the effort doesn't work this time. As I've said before in other threads, humanity's future is Out There, because if it isn't, we don't have a future.

Buzz is not going to be around much longer either.

Don't count Buzz out just yet. He's a street fighter.

Literally. Neil's one small step will always be my number one favorite moment in space exploration of all time, but when Buzz punched out that lying bastard Sibrel it immediately went to number two. Because fuck Bart Sibrel.

 

[klystron]

We shouldn't be using the Soyuz in the first place. Seriously. I mean they canned the shuttle program because it was obsolete technology, only to buy space on fucking Soyuz? Where does that even begin to make sense?

Well to be fair, while many people say "Obama killed the shuttle program" it was scheduled to be decommissioned. However, we should probably have had Orion ready before we let go of it.

White Judeo Christian whatever is all irrelevant. The problem is that all politicians, of all stripes, are assholes. All of them. By definition. Russia's asshole politicians don't get along with our own asshole politicians (and vice versa), mostly to shore up their own political authority in their respective countries. It's not about Russia or the United States, it's always about personal power for them.

I went a bit off topic with a geopolitical sociology comment. I agree with you 100% that all politicians are assholes. Not only that but I believe it takes an inherent type of stupidity and ego to run for office. People who really can improve the country are busy working in industry or helping their fellow man in other ways.

I really don't want to make this a politics thread, but no effort expended in getting humanity off this rock is ever wasted. Even if the effort doesn't work this time. As I've said before in other threads, humanity's future is Out There, because if it isn't, we don't have a future.

I'm not sure I agree that we don't have a future. Some of us will survive. The smart ones. The ones with a lifetime supply of fanta and sailor moon posters.

Don't count Buzz out just yet. He's a street fighter.

I would not mess with Buzz. Heck no. I attended a talk by an astronaut a couple months ago, though. Never have I seen a better example of resting on your laurels for 20 years than I did then. I guess go into space once and be set for life with speaking fees.

Literally. Neil's one small step will always be my number one favorite moment in space exploration of all time, but when Buzz punched out that lying bastard Sibrel it immediately went to number two. Because fuck Bart Sibrel.

Agreed. I hope everyone who worked hard to get us to the moon felt satisfaction from that. That was a truly amazing effort from a time when we all worked together.

 

[OBAMATRON]

There's literally nothing on Mars, why would we waste money going there?

 

[A-Stump]

There's literally nothing on Mars, why would we waste money going there?

There could actually be a wealth of rare minerals on Mars which would make space excavations worth it if technology progressed to that point. It's really more of a future investment than one for the now.

 

[Some JERK]

There's literally nothing on Mars, why would we waste money going there?

We're mainly kinda-sorta looking for evidence of life, or that Mars is at least capable of supporting life in the future (in case we fuck up and leave the Keurig plugged in here on Earth one day.) Beyond that, as impractical as it seems given our current capabilities, Mars may be a wealth of resources that we might one day be able to exploit avail ourselves of.

 

[OBAMATRON]

Good points. I think we agree that it is largely pointless at this point in time. At least sending people there. I see a lot of people who want to go to Mars to prove America has the biggest space penis and waste more money, that's what I think is pointless.

 

[sikotik]

Proving that you've got the biggest penis is NEVER pointless. That's what keeps us moving forward.

Edit to not just be a shitpost:

My father worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center on the Space Station hardware.

When we all moved there in 1987, he took me on a tour of their mockup. It was pretty badass and as a 10 year old kid I was excited for it.
Now as a 37 year old kid, I'm more than a little disappoint in the half-assed cobbled together from Russian crap compromise that's up there now. And they can go and change the locks on it any time because we can't get there on our own for who knows how long.

 

[A-№1]

Well to be fair, while many people say "Obama killed the shuttle program" it was scheduled to be decommissioned. However, we should probably have had Orion ready before we let go of it.

Oh no. Bush Jr. killed the shuttle. It's just that Obama didn't pull the knife out when he killed its replacement.

Not only that but I believe it takes an inherent type of stupidity and ego to run for office.

Not always, but it definitely takes a special type of selfish evil to stay in office. It's only natural for people to want to fix things, and sometimes (very rarely - and getting rarer every year) those people manage to achieve office, and then they either fix things or find things are unfixable. In either case they don't stick around after.

I'm not sure I agree that we don't have a future. Some of us will survive. The smart ones. The ones with a lifetime supply of fanta and sailor moon posters.

I mean long term. If not in the short long term then definitely in the really long term. Eventually the sun will run out of hydrogen.

Like I've said before: extinction is for chumps.

I would not mess with Buzz. Heck no. I attended a talk by an astronaut a couple months ago, though. Never have I seen a better example of resting on your laurels for 20 years than I did then. I guess go into space once and be set for life with speaking fees.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of "speaking fees" either, but I guess some people have to do what they have to do. But Buzz and company are all right; they are literally the best people you could ever hope to know.

Agreed. I hope everyone who worked hard to get us to the moon felt satisfaction from that. That was a truly amazing effort from a time when we all worked together.

It was exactly what I've wanted to do for sooooo long I can't even tell you. Except I would have wanted to have had a cricket bat handy. Some have said it was probably a mistake, but I personally feel that for some people who have proven themselves impervious to courteous logic, facts, and reason, well the only thing left is to haul them out back of the woodshed and give them a whuppin.

There's literally nothing on Mars, why would we waste money going there?

Because the moon is sooo 1969. But seriously, because our future really is Out There. It always has been, ever since the first humans sitting on that beach in south Africa first wondered what was in the next cove over. And the day we turn our gaze inward into our own navels is the day we're well and truly fucked.

From a less philosophical standpoint, the technology to get us to Mars can take us all sorts of places. And do all sorts of things. Do it right and we'll suddenly turn all those scary near earth asteroids into money. I believe even the smallest of them contains something like $25 trillion (yes, with a 't') worth of nickel, never mind the rare earths and other goodies like tantalum and niobium. And then there are the environmental benefits. You cannot tell me that mining and refining in space is somehow preferable to shit like mountain top removal and refiner slag leaching down here on earth. But before we can do any of that we have to somehow first work out how, and a "waste of money" mission to Mars is a really good step towards that.

And even if it is a "waste of money", given the choice between pushing out the boundaries of possibility going to Mars or wasting money buying legos for lazy manbabies, I say Mars or Bust!

tl;dr:

 

[klystron]

Oh no. Bush Jr. killed the shuttle. It's just that Obama didn't pull the knife out when he killed its replacement.

Well, you could argue that Clinton killed it, too.. because it wound up running for twice as long as it was supposed to. (the shuttle program) Why it took so long to get a replacement is beyond me. Of course, it's probably more NASA bureaucracy than any president. Also, was Constellation really canceled? Or is it just called Orion now.

Not always, but it definitely takes a special type of selfish evil to stay in office. It's only natural for people to want to fix things, and sometimes (very rarely - and getting rarer every year) those people manage to achieve office, and then they either fix things or find things are unfixable. In either case they don't stick around after.

Nothing can be fixed because too many people have too many hands in too many cookie jars. You can't make everyone happy. I believe the only way to fix the government at this point is to just agree that everything that exists today is there to make someone happy but we will not create anything new without sacrificing something old. But hey, whatever.

I mean long term. If not in the short long term then definitely in the really long term. Eventually the sun will run out of hydrogen.

That's why humans are getting fatter. Soon we'll start farting hydrogen and become our own sun.

It was exactly what I've wanted to do for sooooo long I can't even tell you. Except I would have wanted to have had a cricket bat handy. Some have said it was probably a mistake, but I personally feel that for some people who have proven themselves impervious to courteous logic, facts, and reason, well the only thing left is to haul them out back of the woodshed and give them a whuppin.

Or give them an Obamaphone.

Because the moon is sooo 1969. But seriously, because our future really is Out There. It always has been, ever since the first humans sitting on that beach in south Africa first wondered what was in the next cove over. And the day we turn our gaze inward into our own navels is the day we're well and truly fucked.

Agreed. There is nothing wrong with a contingency plan, at the very least.

From a less philosophical standpoint, the technology to get us to Mars can take us all sorts of places. And do all sorts of things. Do it right and we'll suddenly turn all those scary near earth asteroids into money. I believe even the smallest of them contains something like $25 trillion (yes, with a 't') worth of nickel, never mind the rare earths and other goodies like tantalum and niobium. And then there are the environmental benefits. You cannot tell me that mining and refining in space is somehow preferable to shit like mountain top removal and refiner slag leaching down here on earth. But before we can do any of that we have to somehow first work out how, and a "waste of money" mission to Mars is a really good step towards that.

I would also add to this that a lot of the technology NASA has invented along the way has been commercially licensable and actually generated real revenue that grows the economy. I don't typically argue for the success of government-run anything, but sometimes when you research and create purely for science and not for markets you then have a need to develop things that eventually wind up back in markets anyway. So it isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Speaking of politics, I had a thought about a year ago and it made me become anti-death penalty. If conservative so distrust the government to do anything right (or make the right decisions), how can they trust the government to make a decision as permanent as death? Just a thought.

 

[A-№1]

Well, you could argue that Clinton killed it, too.. because it wound up running for twice as long as it was supposed to. (the shuttle program) Why it took so long to get a replacement is beyond me.

What replacement?

There ain't no replacement until something actually goes up.

Also, was Constellation really canceled? Or is it just called Orion now.

Yep. Dead as in doornail. Also Orion has always been just the human launch vehicle and kind of its own thing separate from Constellation. The Ares 1 from Constellation that was originally supposed to take it up is well and truly ash canned, so now it's supposedly going to be bolted to the top of SLS. Or at least that's the current plan - who knows what the next administration will do to it?

Or give them an Obamaphone.

The last thing Bart Sibrel needs is a way to annoy even more people.

Speaking of politics, I had a thought about a year ago and it made me become anti-death penalty. If conservative so distrust the government to do anything right (or make the right decisions), how can they trust the government to make a decision as permanent as death? Just a thought.

Unless we want to start talking about the soviet space program, this isn't really the thread for discussing death sentences.